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19 Additional Considerations When Responding to a Nuclear Attack
The size of the affected area means that the city’s emergency response personnel—
once it is safe for them to leave their stations—will be stretched thin simply trying
to establish and secure the perimeter of the Hot Zone, let alone entering to perform
reconnaissance and rescue operations. It will be necessary for those in charge to
perform a sort of urban triage; just as medical personnel cannot spend time attending
to those beyond saving and should not spend time on those whose lives are not at
risk, neither should limited city resources be concentrated in areas that are beyond
saving (e.g. the rubble zone and within the area affected by the mass fire) or in areas
in which there is little that needs done and there are few or no lives to be saved.
The third consideration is that the numbers of affected people are likely to
overwhelm available resources for the first weeks or even months after the attack.
Consider: there can be nearly one million people evacuating from the plume footprint
and another half million or more from the areas adjacent to the rubble zone. In the
United States, an attack against a major city such as New York City, Chicago, or
Los Angeles can produce as many eventual refugees as the total populations of all
but a handful of American cities; an attack against Karachi, Seoul, London, Paris,
Moscow, or any of the major cities in India and China would produce as many, or
more. The scale of the medical and humanitarian needs in the affected city might
initially overwhelm the nation’s available resources. Caring for those evacuated and
displaced, as well as those whose homes remain safe but who lack electricity, food,
and/or water will be challenging and may prove to be beyond the capabilities of
the majority of nations, just as the sheer number of those exposed to high levels of
radiation and radioactive fallout is likely to overwhelm the resources available to
perform even a cursory radiological dose assessment.
19.3 Lack of Public Preparation for Civil Defense
During the Cold War, the US, USSR, and many or their allied nations devoted
significant resources towards civil defense. Most Americans who were born during
the twentieth century were exposed to civil defense advertisements, public service
announcements, signs, and more; it is safe to say that the majority of Americans
who lived in the twentieth century had heard the phrase “duck and cover” and had
participated in drills about what to do in order to try to save their lives in the event
of a nuclear attack. The same was true in the Soviet Union, as well as in most of the
nations of NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Since the end of the Cold War, much of this has changed. The majority of Americans born after 1990 are likely to have never seen (or to not remember) nor to have
received any civil defense training whatsoever. The fact is that the majority of Americans, and the majority of citizens in nations throughout the world, have had little or
no training in civil defense. As a result, it is possible that many people in a city that
was attacked—as many as tens or even hundreds of thousands—do not know what
actions to take to keep themselves safe. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people
19 Additional Considerations When Responding to a Nuclear Attack
The size of the affected area means that the city’s emergency response personnel—
once it is safe for them to leave their stations—will be stretched thin simply trying
to establish and secure the perimeter of the Hot Zone, let alone entering to perform
reconnaissance and rescue operations. It will be necessary for those in charge to
perform a sort of urban triage; just as medical personnel cannot spend time attending
to those beyond saving and should not spend time on those whose lives are not at
risk, neither should limited city resources be concentrated in areas that are beyond
saving (e.g. the rubble zone and within the area affected by the mass fire) or in areas
in which there is little that needs done and there are few or no lives to be saved.
The third consideration is that the numbers of affected people are likely to
overwhelm available resources for the first weeks or even months after the attack.
Consider: there can be nearly one million people evacuating from the plume footprint
and another half million or more from the areas adjacent to the rubble zone. In the
United States, an attack against a major city such as New York City, Chicago, or
Los Angeles can produce as many eventual refugees as the total populations of all
but a handful of American cities; an attack against Karachi, Seoul, London, Paris,
Moscow, or any of the major cities in India and China would produce as many, or
more. The scale of the medical and humanitarian needs in the affected city might
initially overwhelm the nation’s available resources. Caring for those evacuated and
displaced, as well as those whose homes remain safe but who lack electricity, food,
and/or water will be challenging and may prove to be beyond the capabilities of
the majority of nations, just as the sheer number of those exposed to high levels of
radiation and radioactive fallout is likely to overwhelm the resources available to
perform even a cursory radiological dose assessment.
19.3 Lack of Public Preparation for Civil Defense
During the Cold War, the US, USSR, and many or their allied nations devoted
significant resources towards civil defense. Most Americans who were born during
the twentieth century were exposed to civil defense advertisements, public service
announcements, signs, and more; it is safe to say that the majority of Americans
who lived in the twentieth century had heard the phrase “duck and cover” and had
participated in drills about what to do in order to try to save their lives in the event
of a nuclear attack. The same was true in the Soviet Union, as well as in most of the
nations of NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
Since the end of the Cold War, much of this has changed. The majority of Americans born after 1990 are likely to have never seen (or to not remember) nor to have
received any civil defense training whatsoever. The fact is that the majority of Americans, and the majority of citizens in nations throughout the world, have had little or
no training in civil defense. As a result, it is possible that many people in a city that
was attacked—as many as tens or even hundreds of thousands—do not know what
actions to take to keep themselves safe. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people